The Southern Baptist Churches are remembering Lottie this morning and giving out towards the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Lottie was an incredible woman and she was short . . . really short . . I saw a lifesize figure of Lottie in Virginia this year – she comes up to my WAIST! But, hey, I dont want to discriminate against short people and besides that, she poured herself out for the Chinese nation and knew what it was to starve and suffer. Some say she basically starved to death . . . a danger that Southern Baptist missionaries today do not often face in these times that are witnessing the global expansion of Krispy Kreme donuts.
But I do challenge you Southern Baptist Churches (especially SBC emerging churches) to put out some serious cash for your missionaries. They are the best people you have. They are export quality which is why they are out there on the edge, representing your butts while you work yours off to support them. You can do it online here.
The International Mission Board (IMB) of the SBC has had its share of controversy this past week over the issue of speaking in tongues and baptism. . . . ” a person must be baptized by a qualified “administrator” of baptism, which simply means, according to the new policy, a pastor of a Southern Baptist Church, or one “ordained” by a Southern Baptist Church” (Wade Burlinson). Steve McCoy has the skinny here, along with Wade Burlinson’s open letter to SBC. Marty Duren of SBC Outpost also has an open letter.
ADVICE FOR TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED:
If you are a Southern Baptist non-techical person and dont know how to datamine the web but would like to follow the conversation about SBC, IMB, tongues and baptism on the various blogs – go here to technorati. If you are a bit more geeky, make a watchlist on technorati, grab the RSS feed and throw it into your newsreader. Dont have a news reader? Download a free one.
BTW, I was at the IMB HQ in Virginia early this year for a missions briefing (with a related group). I was hoping to hack into the ISPD – Integrated Strategic Planning Database but Billy Hoffman escorted me around the building, showing me the computers but not letting me jump on and take them for a spin. Too bad.
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Well whaddya know. seems the IMB has just determined that neither Jesus (baptised OUTSIDE any connection with an SBC church) nor Paul (hearty proponent of tongues and private prayer languages) are worthy of serving with their organisation. Pity to disqualify these two who were so effective in the furthering of the gospel. Believe me, I have already been sending letters to my IMB superiors. Interestingly enough, these policies are not applied to current employees. If the Board of Trustees is making decisions of policy to maintain a standard of spiritual health and maturity and to do all that can be done to further the cause of Christ, why would these standards not be applied to all IMB personnel, not just future personnel? And if these policies are not for the purposes I just spelled out, why are they being applied to anyone at all? Wade Burlinson’s letter spells out the concerns well. Smells like political posturing. Messing with Biblical truth for political purposes? Well, starts with a P and ends with an H A R I S E E.
Andrew-
Thanks for the link…sorry I missed calling you whilst you were in the states. Just wanted to say “hi.”